French regulator Arcep opposes European Commission’s telecoms deregulation proposal

5 months ago 18

France’s regulator Arcep is not fully on board with the European Commission’s ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to deregulating its telecoms sector, said president Laure de la Raudière, in a speech on Thursday (30 May).

“I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach,” on the issue of deregulation said de la Raudière during her annual speech on the health of the French telecom sector. She said telecoms regulations are too different in each member state.

The EU executive published a white paper in February and opened until 30 June a public consultation, raising the prospect of market deregulation as part of a proposal for a new EU telecoms act.

Enrico Letta supported telecommunications market deregulation in his high-level report on the single market. In his view, telecom operators’ low margins impede them from investing in new-generation telecom infrastructures.

On the contrary, based on their annual financial results, French operators have been able to address investment challenges, said de la Raudière.

“Arcep will collaborate with the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC)” to respond to the Commission’s telecoms public consultation to question the need for market deregulation in the EU, she said.

The regulator added, the current EU telecommunications framework is not deregulating to incentivise consolidation, as the current framework already allows cross-border consolidation, citing discussions during BEREC’s March stakeholder forum.

The fact that French telecom operators Orange, Iliad, and Altice are operating in other EU countries shows that cross-border operations are possible, without the need for deregulation, she pointed out.

De la Raudière, however, supports the Commission’s white paper recommendations, for addressing security challenges in telecoms infrastructure, including subsea cables.

But she did not specify Arcep’s position on other aspects of the Commission’s white paper, such as spectrum governance or leveling the playing field with big tech.

Newest EU regulations and rules

“There should be no changes to the French telecommunications regulatory framework established by Arcep due to [this year’s] adoption,” of the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) and Gigabit recommendation said de la Raudière.

The GIA is the EU’s newest telecommunications regulation aiming to speed up fiber and 5G roll-out within the EU, to reach the target of 100% of households connected by 2030.

Arcep estimates that 86% of French households were fiber-ready at the end of 2023. That’s higher than the EU’s average of 56%, according to Commission estimates.

The gigabit recommendation is a non-binding document from the Commission giving guidance to national administrative authorities in how to implement the 2018 European Electronic Communications Code.

The Code provides “great flexibility” to national regulatory authorities, so the gigabit recommendation “will not change much to Arcep’s regulation,” de la Raudière told Euractiv.